John Ryder was part of a generation of local Republican leaders who saw the party move from being the loyal opposition to a Democratic statewide majority to being the majority party in Tennessee — even though Shelby County remained a predominantly Democratic county.

A partner at the Harris Shelton law firm, Ryder held many local, state and national party positions over the years including Shelby County party chairman.

In those positions and as an attorney, Ryder influenced the way the national party picks its presidential nominee with an eye for detail that made him a nationally known expert on the once-a-decade process of redrawing local, state and federal district lines.

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Ryder died over the weekend at the age of 72.

Ryder was appointed by former President Donald Trump to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority and became chairman of the board in 2020 after Trump called for the ouster of TVA president and CEO Jeff Lyash.

Lyash survived the challenge.

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But Trump was able to remove board chairman James Thompson and board member Richard Howorth for a policy of firing 200 in-house TVA tech employees and contracting the jobs out to foreign labor.

As board chairman, Ryder negotiated with the White House and specifically Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

Ryder’s specialty was matching broad legal principles with complex political arrangements.

For instance, Willie Herenton’s 2010 bid for Congress in a challenge of Democratic incumbent Steve Cohen in that year’s Democratic primary featured Herenton arguing the 9th Congressional district was drawn specifically for the election of a Black representative.

“What it means is the Voting Rights Act certainly led to the creation of a majority Black district, and that means that the Black population in the 9th District has the opportunity to elect its preferred candidate of choice,” Ryder said. “In our political system, all players are free to compete to become that preferred candidate.”

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Ryder went from opposing the district lines drawn by Democratic supermajorities in the Tennessee General Assembly in court to defending and advising Republican supermajorities in the General Assembly on how to draw the district lines.

He was believed to be responsible for changes to the Congressional district lines drawn in the Capitol that at first expanded the geographic reach of the predominantly Democratic 9th District.

In an early draft, all of predominantly Republican Tipton County was in the 9th and then in the final version half of Tipton County.

Tennessee House Democratic leader Karen Camper of Memphis offered bipartisan praise for Ryder.

“John served the Tennessee Republican Party and the Memphis area diligently and faithfully for many, many years,” she said. “He spearheaded the Republican redistricting efforts and was known for standing by his principles as an attorney and as a statesman. But he was also loved for being a very nice, giving person.”

“Mr. Ryder has been a confidant of almost every elected Republican in Tennessee for the last half century through his tireless and selfless giving, support, and expertise,” Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden said in announcing Ryder’s death. 

“His unmatched legacy and resume will never be forgotten by those who knew him and I am fortunate to have called him a friend and mentor as have many chairmen of the Tennessee Republican Party,” Golden said.

Former Gov. and former U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said he admired Ryder and “counted him as a friend.”

“With deft legal skills and an easy manner, John Ryder helped build the Tennessee Republican Party over nearly a half century,” he said.

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Ryder was among the leaders of the Shelby County Young Republicans chapter in the mid-1970s as the party was weathering the effects of the Watergate scandal that ended the presidency of Republican Richard Nixon.

The Tennessee Young Republicans group, led by future Gov. Don Sundquist of Memphis, hosted the group’s national convention in Memphis in 1977, as Republicans nationally were already beginning to unite around former California Gov. Ronald Reagan.

Reagan challenged Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election in a hard-fought contest, including in the Tennessee Republican primaries.

Ford survived the challenge but lost the general election to Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter.

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When the YR convention set up shop at the Holiday Inn Rivermont a year later, Ryder was among those in the group pushing for a joint appearance by Ford and Reagan at the gathering.

Reagan agreed. Ford’s staff wanted nothing to do with a joint appearance, Ryder would say later.

But the then-former president was playing in the pro-am event of what was then the Danny Thomas Open golf tournament at Colonial Country Club as the YR convention was in town.

When Ford hit a hole-in-one at Colonial, Ryder again approached Ford’s staff, which relented and said Ford would agree to accept a plaque from Young Republicans for the hole-in-one but would still not make a joint appearance with Reagan.

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Reagan didn’t come to town to speak at the convention for several more days. Reagan and Ford never crossed paths at the Rivermont.

The convention was an early indicator of the support Reagan would have in the 1980 campaign.

It also saw the election of Roger Stone – then best-known as a minor figure in the Watergate “dirty tricks” allegations – as the new national president of Young Republicans with Paul Manafort running Stone’s campaign at the convention in Memphis.

By the 1980 presidential campaign, Ryder was immersed in the first regularly scheduled once-a-decade redrawings of local, state and federal district lines for which he was to become known nationally.

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As a member of the Republican National Committee and the general counsel to the RNC, Ryder was also a key strategist who advocated for a tiered set of presidential primaries known as the “Delaware Plan” adopted by the party for the 2012 presidential elections.

The strategy was to have the smaller states by population hold their primaries first with the largest states in the last tier and Tennessee in the middle tier in May – moving the state’s presidential primaries out of the February and March time frame, where they had been since 1988.

Ryder found strategy and working on the structure of elections a better match than being the candidate. He ran for public elected office once in 2002, losing a Republican primary bid for Shelby County Commission to Bruce Thompson.

U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty described Ryder as “a pillar … who strived daily for principles he believed in.”

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn said he “improved the lives of his fellow citizens.”

Ryder’s last assignments included being attorney for the Shelby County Election Commission during a time of increasing challenges of election results by Democratic contenders for local offices as well as the demerger of public education in the county into seven school districts.

The demerger meant a federal court battle over when to hold school board elections in the six newly-created suburban school districts and court approval of a restructuring of the Memphis Shelby County Schools district to take in the city of Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County.

Ryder’s position for the Election Commission wasn’t pro or con on the boundaries. It was all about the business of getting qualified candidate on the ballot in time to meet deadlines set by the state.

Ryder made his point by quoting Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” in his filing.

“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly,” he wrote in a filing to U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Hardy Mays.

Ryder’s eye for detail also made him the broker for numerous settlements, including the 2018 Chancery Court ruling that opened additional early voting sites for the August county general and state and local primaries election.

Not all of Ryder’s clients were political in nature.

He served as the court appointed receiver for the Beale Street entertainment district as the city-owned district moved from management by Performa Entertainment to management by the Downtown Memphis Commission – first on an interim basis and then on a permanent basis.

Performa, led by John Elkington, had managed the district from its renovation and reopening in 1983 to a departure from Beale Street fraught with numerous legal issues that delayed it for several years after it was announced.

“It will add some sanity to this situation,” Elkington said in 2009 when Ryder was named receiver for the district.